The Haunted North Bend Trail

Hi, I'm Holly. And I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries, Tales from Appalachia. Welcome back.

Welcome. Welcome. With Holly and Shirley. Oh, my God.

That last one came out hard. It came from the depths. But recently, it's our anniversary. We talked about that last episode.

I've been going through some of our past episodes and listening. The start always says, Hi, I'm Hailey. Well, when we first started, we were starting to laugh at ourselves. But it starts out like, I'm Hailey.

I'm in a well somewhere. Oh, I'm Hailey. It was because we were sharing a mic and we had to keep bouncing back on the same mic. But it did sound like you were trapped in a well somewhere.

I might have been. It's our secret. In a well the whole time. Didn't want anybody to know that.

But it's right. Out of the well now. And Hailey. It's just so creepy.

That's how we started our gig. Yeah. And we have started somewhere. And we started in a well.

Then the bottom of the well. Mm-hmm. Preppy little Holly and Trapp a little Hailey. Oh, God.

I know. Yeah. That's all the things. Yeah.

So recently at the school I work at we had Spirit Week. Oh. Were you spirited for homecoming? I was very spirited.

Is this the ensemble I told? Yes. Your prom dress? Yes.

So like the 80s. One of our days in our student government association voted on all the days like pick the days or something. I don't really know. But the first day was Ken versus Barbie because of the new Barbie maybe.

Yes. It's about. So we were trying to like, you know, figure out what we're going to do because our staff really gets into it too. I appreciate it.

And just encourage the kids. And the kids were amazing this past week. They got so into it. Like almost every day we had almost half the school, over half the school dressed up.

Participating. It was crazy. Our crowds kept getting bigger and bigger. So we moved them from like our little breezeway area to the cafeteria to have more room.

And then Friday we had to move them down to the gym because there was just so many that were dressed up. But Barbie Day was probably my favorite because we decided. So how it came about is somebody donated these clothes or clothes closet, which we always appreciate getting donations. But sometimes we have to go through them and like.

They're a little dated. Some of them are dated or some of them are inappropriate for school. Like we've gotten a few like scandalous things that we just. Hailey's like, oh, I'm going to take these home for them.

So we were going through these bags and they were the most amazing like 80s and 90s dresses and like so many good pieces. Granted, all of those were really, really tiny. So like nobody could wear them. But that got us thinking, what if we all found like 80s prom dresses or like something like that and made like little sashes and were classic Barbies.

I love it. And we did our prom closet and the theater department and found all of these amazing dresses and wore them all day. I love it. Actually, I made it till 1230 and then my got really cheap.

So I take that sucker off. But it was amazing. It's like the kids walking in on Monday morning and there's just like a row of us in your prom dresses. Did the guys like wear tuxes or?

No. So our whole department is women, except for our administrators. And they were they had like the ascot and the preppy stuff. I love it.

But yeah, that was our history. That's really cool. I mean, it's one or first football game with a season. They had not won yet the season and I won.

So it was a good week. It was an awesome week. We should do that. Although I think that a clinician wearing a ball gown that distracts a little from processing trauma.

And nonetheless, I still think I'm really fun. Listen, I just speak to a child about I'm a pretty significant event and she walked in and I'm like, I'm so sorry that I look this way. Like the mood a little bit. I've seen him in crocs.

So you come to every day and you're PJs and crocs I'm in an 80s prom dress now. And we're kind of even. This is what it's fine. It's fine.

It was an amazing week. It's one of my favorite weeks of the year. We deal with so much crap and sometimes kids are feral, but this week they were fantastic. We had an awesome week and I was like, oh my gosh, this is why we do this.

This is so fun. I love it. Just a little renewed energy. It was exhausting.

I'm sure. I'm exhausted. I'm sure, but still nonetheless fun. What's the story about?

Is this about any kind of fun? I mean, yeah, kind of. We're actually going to talk about a trail and some haunties and some, you know, just kind of some cool history. So we are going to go to the North Bend Trail, which is in the western part of West Virginia.

Sorry, I just dropped a little bit. I do every other sort of this one. Yeah, North Central and Western West Virginia. That's not easy to say.

It is not Western West Virginia. Western West. Yeah, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Okay, so the North Bend Trail stretches about 72 miles across North Central and Western West Virginia.

It's a wilderness path. Takes travelers across 36 bridges and through 10 tunnels and is part of the 5,500 mile American discovery trail, which actually spans the length of the United States. I did not know that, but it's impressive. It's pretty cool.

So this is a part of that trail. It's become one of the most renowned recreational trails throughout the Appalachians. And it's known for beautiful mountainous scenery, great views. There's some pretty impressive rock cuts.

It goes through farmland. It's pretty neat. Nice trail. One of the highlights though is a 2,297 foot tunnel, which is a long tunnel.

I'm already scared. It's called the Silver Run Tunnel, and it is haunted. Obviously. Obviously.

Yeah, obviously. So the railroad that now makes up the North Bend rail trail was built by the Northwestern Virginia Railroad before the Civil War. Wow. So this is pre-civil war.

So extremely old. Yeah. The line was later sold to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Over the years, the line changed ownership.

And it was eventually rail-banked, which I believe is where it doesn't run anymore. Okay, because when you said that, you looked at me and I was like, what is that? I think that's what that means. I didn't look up at the definition.

It's on a never prepared. It's on a never prepared. Don't worry, fans. Don't worry.

Holly's on it. I'm on it. In the 1980s, CSX transportation sold a line to the state of West Virginia, which began converting it into a recreation trail for the state park system. Initial trail segments opened in 1991, with additional portions added over the next several years.

So there's another trail. Have you ever been on the Creeper Trail? Yes. Yeah, it's an old.

Yeah, Virginia Creeper Trail, which is Southwest Virginia. So there's a lot of that kind of stuff that happens. Like old trails or old tracks and stuff like that aren't in use anymore become trails. So here you go.

Rail banking is a method by which freight rail lines proposed for abandonment can be preserved for future freight rail used through interim conversion to trail use and other uses. Yeah, nice. Like, awesome. Trail banking.

Yeah, that's what I thought. OK, so let's talk about the Silver Run Tunnel. So this trail, like we talked about in West Virginia, super well known for all the tunnels that are on it. I mean, there's what did I say?

10 different tunnels on the trail, which is kind of a lot. I was still creepy. Yes. So the tunnels on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line between Grafton and Parkersburg, West Virginia, were built just after the Civil War.

So between 1867 and 1870, by the late 1950s, railroad freight cars were getting taller and wider. So the narrow, low tunnels on the BNO line were creating a problem. Yeah. Yeah.

Every time we go into that, we just kind of keep hitting rock. It's really scraping the top of the terrain. So it was creating all these issues. And they were referred to all these tunnels referred to as the bottleneck, which makes sense.

Yeah. By rail riders, because the difficulty of getting the larger trains through the tunnels, BNO decided to do a clearance project, which was widening the tunnels and raising the roofs to accommodate the new trains. He's the roof. He's the roof.

Right. Yeah. Get it. Heilian or prom dress.

Some of the tunnels were daylighted or had their roofs removed. So they were open cuts instead of tunnels as part of this project. So instead of it being a tunnel, they just kind of lifted the top. Off.

The top off. The top off. The roof and took off the tops. Sounds like a day at the nose of Hain.

Oh, great times. Great times. Always a party. This is Patreon though.

It's just Hain. Oh, they're so dark. Oh, welcome to it. Oh, gosh.

OK. So there are 10 of the original tunnels though that remain like they were. OK. So they added tunnels, took away tunnels, made new tunnels, took their tops off.

Raised roofs. It was a lot of activity. There's a lot. But fortunately, 10 were the ones that got saved.

Yeah. So I think the first, past three of these tunnels are regularly. Most of them are unaware of the ghostly legends connected with several of the tunnels. Stories of some grizzly deaths, apparitions, strange noises, and frightening experiences.

Oh, I know. But these grizzly deaths will help. What the hell? So I think she's going to tell us the story.

I think I wrote this up three weeks ago. I have no idea what I'm reading. Well, come back. She's been raising the roof.

I was sick. I wrote all of this before then. I was like, I've could have read them before I came, but I thought, why not make it fun? Folks, I just want to take a moment and just bring you this moment and say, be prepared.

I'm never prepared. Come in prepared. Never. You have failed the test.

Yeah, obviously. It's all right. I'll let it slide. Right.

Okay. So we're going to talk about the lady in white. Oh, I'm you still lady in red, but wait, okay. So the most well-known of all the spooky tales is silver, I can't say silver tonight.

Silver run tunnels lady in white. Silver run or tunnel 19 is located not far from the town of Cairo, West Virginia. It's spelled like Cairo, Egypt. So we're going to.

I'll go with it. Which was one famous for its marble making industry. Today, the silver run tunnel and its resident ghost attracts hundreds of visitors to Cairo. According to the legend, a young woman waited for her betrothed at the silver run station.

She was to be married and was wearing a long white dress as she watched for her lover. He never came. So the question is, she's waiting at this station. Did she fall?

Did she throw herself in front of the train? Did she jump in grief and despair when she realized she had been jilted? Or did he kill her? No, no one knows.

Oh. So she's standing there watching for her lover ends up dying somehow. There's not a lot of light. We don't really know how to tell.

And stories change so much. So no one really knows how she died, but not long after her death, whispers began to spread that her ghosts had been seen in the tunnel. One night an engineer reported a woman in white who appeared at the tunnel entrance just as his train was approaching. The engineer tried to stop, but there was not enough time.

The train struck the woman sending her flying off the tracks. Oh my god. When the train finally stopped, the engineer and his crew got off the train and they searched around to find the body because they were like, oh my god, we killed someone. They searched in vain for her body, but it was nobody to be found.

After that report, engineers regularly reported seeing a woman and tried to avoid hitting her. Each time the story was the same, she wouldn't vanish into the air. So they went to strike her, throw her off the tracks, get out and look. This speaks to she threw herself onto the tracks and was killed that way.

And this is just whatever that loop that we talked about. It's always related to trains almost. It's a loop. Yeah.

The engineer that decided he was not going to stop for the apparition. He said, you know what? I'm sick of this. Who cares?

You're not real. Right? We're going to plow on. Well, he got haunted.

When she appeared in front of his train, he blew the whistle but did not break. The train smashed into the woman and she sailed up and over the engine. The telepathis, I'm like we just left it like right there. Began in parkersburg began getting strange messages for every station between the office and Silver Run.

A woman in white was riding on the cow catcher of an incoming train. So I don't know exactly what a cow catcher is but it's a part of a train. As a train pulled into the station, a crowd was waiting. But there was no woman in white, only a pale-faced engineer who looked like he'd seen a ghost.

So you hit her, hits the ghost. She flies up and over the train and grabs off and just takes her ride. So it says here, a cow catcher, also known as a pilot, is a device mounted to the front of a locomotive to deflect obstacles on the track that might otherwise damage it. So it's almost like...

Oh, it's the front piece. The front piece. It's so hard to hold onto. Yeah.

Home girl's holding onto. But not. She's just holding onto that guy. It's not real.

I mean she's a ghost. Right, but there's all these people that are calling into the station. So you're like, well there's a lady on the train holding on. She's just strapped onto the train.

Is riding with me. But when I got there, she was not there. She was ghost. She was ghost.

She was ghost. So that's a lot of you running into her on the train. You have to worry. She'll just hang on to the front of our cow.

That's fine. Cow train. Cow catcher. The cow catcher.

Which is kind of funny. That's terrible. That's terrible. It shouldn't be the ghost catcher.

The ghost catcher. Yeah. Okay, so we're going to move on to another tunnel on this trail. Of course we are.

Which is the Brandy Gap Tunnel, which is tunnel number two on the trail. Obviously. So we'll talk a little bit about the history. It was built between 1853 and 1854.

The Brandy Gap Tunnel was part of the B&O Railroad line used by the Northwestern Virginia Railroad that was completed in May of 1857. Line was abandoned in 1985. Yada yada yada. We know all that.

Let's get into the ghost. Okay. We talked about it before. Okay.

About the trail. It's the same kind of history. Oh, good. But this is just in kind of a different location.

Okay. So there are several legends of ghost stories about this tunnel and what caused the hauntings. The first story was able to be verified via an old newspaper clipping. Okay.

So there was only a couple of things that was found. Police report that they have seen slash heard apparitions. A phantom train, phantom miss slash vlog that follows you. The sound of metal scraping orbs, growling footsteps and children talking and giggling.

So here's the piece from the music article. Worker dies in the tunnel. On January 15th, 1853, a worker died while in the tunnel when a mound of earth fell in him. Two others were injured.

And that's pretty much, you know, headline up there. There were some other news clippings that were found in the Cooper's Clark's Park register. And they said, quote, killed. A man named Henley was killed at the Brandy Gap Tunnel on last Saturday by a quantity of earth falling on him.

He was taken to Fairmont on Monday for internment. Two other men were seriously injured. I like the hell killed. I just like the old Jamie headlines.

I mean, we are. We're to the point. Here's a point. This says it costs a lot for us to do this by the letter.

We're going to get to the point real fast. Yep. Killed. Haley.

Yeah. Done. Yeah. So there's also another legend that there were some workers that were caught off guard by an incoming train.

Legend has it that a train unexpectedly ran through the Brandy Gap Tunnel and caught those in the tunnel off guard. You don't hear a train? I guess not. All right.

There's a couple of different versions of the story. The first version states that there was, you know, they couldn't make it into one of the manholes, which are these alcoves cut into the side of the walls to allow anybody that's in the tunnel to step into to get out of the way. Right. And they just couldn't get there in time.

Gotcha. Another version was that there were three workers and one was cut in half by the train. One was caught under the train and dragged for about 75 feet, which caused the train to derail and that one person made it into the manhole and came out unscathed. There's not really any documented proof of this.

Oh my God. I'm crazy. So let's talk about another real bad thing. Sure.

Let's keep going. The KKK lynchings. Oh, no, I don't like that. I'm not going to bring it down.

So there's another story that states that the KKK used the Brandy Gap Tunnel for lynchings causing the railroad to abandon the tunnel. Again, there's not really any hard evidence on that. But if you just yell out to the whole occupied, I mean, what the hell? Right.

That's disgusting. It is disgusting. There's also several stories of people who have committed suicide by train. Which is my theory about the lady in white.

Right. Where they either jump in front of it or stand there waiting to be hit or... What a horrible way to go. Yeah, I can't.

Okay. And then there's also the Brandy Gap Cemetery, which is located just west of the tunnel on the trail. It has graves that date back to the 1700s. I want to go there so bad.

I know you do. Oh my gosh. This is happening. Oh my gosh.

You know, one of the hundreds on it. Right. 1700s. 1700s.

It's crazy. Wow. There's a side trail that kind of goes off the main trail that actually goes up into the cemetery. So like, I guess you're encouraged to visit.

Are you then? I mean, if there's a trail, there's a public trail going up to it. Are you encouraged to visit or are you just wanting to visit? I'm encouraged to visit.

I'm not. I'm not. I'll wait in the car for you. Great.

I'll keep the motor running. So rumor has it that there are groans that this embodied voices and other supernatural sounds that are coming from the cemetery located a short distance away and they travel into the tunnel. So that's what the voices are hearing. Not necessarily coming from the tunnel, but coming from the cemetery.

Oh my back. I can't lie in that position for that long. Exactly. You're going to hurt.

Yeah. Makes sense. If you look up this cemetery and read some of the like haunting stories, there's many like bloggers, people like us that say that the cemetery is actually right above the tunnel, but it's not. It's on a hill kind of the side.

It just overlooks it. It's not directly about it. Okay. It's just up the hill from the tunnel.

So I think still feasible though that the voices could travel. Oh, for sure. Especially in these valleys and stuff like that. They're kind of crazy.

I know like where I live is on a ridge and we've got, you know, our ridge and then down both sides and then it goes back up. And like somebody will be like shooting in the woods, which is not like a scary sound. They're probably shooting ground mugs. All right.

And it's almost sometimes it sounds like it's right next to you. Yeah. Because it echoes so loud. Yeah.

Sound drop and get those ground dogs. I don't know. I don't know about my visit to this cave graveyard cemetery. I don't know.

All the things. I don't know about it. All right. I want to go.

I know you do. I mean, I might. Where is it? This is the Brandy Gap cemetery.

Brandy Gap cemetery in West Virginia. Ooh, six and a half hours. Yeah. Is it on the way to anything though?

When I go up to DC? Salem, West Virginia. Yeah, I'm seeing four hundred and eight miles. Six and a half hours.

It's a long trip. It is. I was trying to see if it was on my way because I traveled to DC every summer. Can we just take a plane ride?

Let's just get out of plane. Let's do it. I don't want to fly into West Virginia. Let's fly into another stuff.

Let's fly into. Listen, we could fly into. I'm trying to see if this kind of takes us through. It's flying to DC.

We could fly into DC. And then take kind of a roundabout way. Now we just got to drive it, man. Red trip.

Here's what we do. We get an RV. Ooh. And we make it an RV trip.

Okay. That would be fun. Because I'm a glamor. I'm not sitting outside in the woods.

I'm not just under that. But let's get an RV. Let's fill it with all of our monchies and foods that we really enjoy. Yeah.

And then we just travel out there. Yeah. Or we could. Sorry y'all are having to listen to our.

We're thinking our strategic plan. I'm trying to say if there's anything near there that we could kind of go to. We could kind of go to and make it like a nice hotel. Yeah.

Do they have any kind of B and B? We're replaced with Pittsburgh. Oh Pittsburgh. Steelsburg.

Yeah. That's not far from Pittsburgh. Yeah. Okay.

So we go to Pittsburgh. All right. Take a day trip down there. Yeah.

See it. I need some steel. Go back to Pittsburgh. Go back to Pittsburgh.

Okay. I like it. All right. Well.

We'll let you know when we're traveling. Yeah. You can see us in Pittsburgh. Live in Pittsburgh.

Whatever hotel. I mean, I know we're not trying to. What about a best Western? I think that's pricey.

I was thinking a motel six. Okay. Listen, we will put our coins together. Okay.

And you know, I think Jimmy, a chair under the door. I feel a con. Just probably the best we can do. I'm not as mad about a con.

I'm not as mad about a lot. Just I am a six. Yeah. Okay.

I don't think we're quite a bit. I don't know. Here's where I work. Comfort and I am looking for.

A complimentary breakfast. I just. A continental. A continental complimentary.

Complementary. Complementary breakfast. Yeah. One of those.

I want to make my own waffles. I want some, maybe it's egg. Maybe it's not. Scramble.

Whatever just came out of that bag. That's right. Some kind of sausage-ish. I want a sausage link.

Yeah. And maybe some bacon. Yeah. I stayed at a hotel in Virginia.

So many, many years ago. And they had the best bacon. I swear. And they had tons of it.

And they were like put out this bacon and I was like score. So did I have a lot of bacon now in my plate? You're damn right I did. Did I make my own waffle?

Absolutely. Did I take it back up to my room so I could pig out on it, not in front of people while I watched TV? Maybe. Yeah.

Not like that. It was a really good time. It was a really good bacon I gotta say. So that's really our own stipulations.

If you know of anywhere to stay in here, Pittsburgh, that is real cheap. Not gonna get us murdered. It has good continental breakfast. I mean that's what we're looking for, folks.

So hit us up. And here's how you can do it. Here it is. You can email us.

Do you want to do it or do you want to? I'm so focused on the breakfast now that it's really hard to read it. I did the shout out last week. Okay, then I'm gonna say.

So. I'm gonna give it to you this time. Okay. You go for it.

Okay. I feel in short now. Okay. So you can email us your hotel recommendations or breakfast ideas or breakfast ideas to Mountain Mysteries dot Appalachian at assumefennel.com.

Find us on our Facebook Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Find us on Instagram at mountain mysteries dot Appalachia and check us out on our patreon, patreon.com slash mountain mysteries. It's a really good time. It's fun.

That's fun. We're gonna do Harris County, West Virginia. We're just talking about because y'all. We're coming.

Well, assuming we can work out the RV, we can work out the, you know, I mean, I think we could do car if we have a good hotel and by good. We mean cost effective. Cost effective. Minimal crime rate with a breakfast with a breakfast.

That's what I'm looking for. I'm fine with some crime. Just not petty. I'm petty crime is fine.

Super violent crimes felony of level feels a little sketch and less drugs and then I'm buying with it. Really just know what you know, murder or assault is kind of where I draw the wires. Right. Here's my plan.

We get in our room. I'm, if you have a pool, preferably indoor, but that sounds fancy. No, that feels more holiday and we don't have a cash. So here's what I'm thinking though.

We, we come out of our room for the breakfast. We don't eat it there because usually they have Fox News playing. Yeah, we gotta go. So we take it and we go to our room and we've seen each other eat.

We, there's no judges. So we're good with that. Yeah. And then we go and explore the caves and do the things.

Yeah. I like it. I'm not mad about it. I know because I can eat enough.

Actually, I will pack. I'm going to bring us some baggies. Ooh, the block. Yes.

So that we can pack some of these things up. We'll get enough food. We can take the fruit and sometimes I have some bagels. I have such a bad.

I will pack well. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Yeah.

Some bananas. Bananas. We'll take all of that with us. That'll be our lunch.

That'll be our lunch. And then, you know, we all have eaten so well that day, you know, we only have to purchase dinner and we can like go through a drive-through and go eat and eat. Easy. This sounds like a very cost-effective trip.

I am not sad. I feel like this could come in from wishing. Not at all. I mean, with gas and everybody would split it.

But here's the problem. Here's the problem. Why? We got it.

Yeah, considered. These places are in the woods. Huh. On a trail.

I don't. We have to go into the woods. But the cemetery we could access via car. No, it's from the trail.

Look to get on the trail and go on the secondary trail. I don't like that. You had me at breakfast. Okay, we'll circle back and we'll think about it.

We'll do some more investigation into maybe there is a parking option. I just don't know about it. I think there has to be. We'll look it up.

We'll get back to it. It has to be a way to access the cemetery, particularly if it's well kept. Yeah. We'll figure it out.

We'll look it up. We'll let you know. Okay. Well, I guess I'll be chowing down on my breakfast while he goes and walks a trail.

You let me go with the loan. I ain't going. Okay. Well, if you're stupid enough to go, we have at it.

True. Fair. Fair. All right.

Well, on that sad note, I'll be eating my bacon. We will. See you next week. Bye.

Bye.